Former bus driver and National Lottery millionaire Peter Lavery from East Belfast took a trip back in time with a visit to the lottery-funded Ulster Folk and Transport Museum to celebrate some good news for the driving profession.

Now a successful businessman, Peter has become one of Northern Ireland’s best known National Lottery winners after parking a whopping £10,248,233 in his bank account on May 18, 1996.

But Peter is not the only driver to raise a glass to the National Lottery since it started more than 20 years ago.

A unique peek inside The National Lottery’s giant winner file today reveals that drivers have accelerated to second place in the luckiest professions chart, with 193 millionaires created and more than 1,500 major prizes totalling over £750m picked up by bus drivers like Peter, cabbies and lorry drivers such as Les Scadding from South Wales who won £45 million back in 2009.

The luckiest profession, however, is the building trade with a monumental 331 millionaire builders created since the first National Lottery draw in November 1994.

The top five luckiest lottery-winning professions, based on the number of millionaires created, look like this:

Rank

Profession

No. of Millionaires

Total major prizes

1

Builders/Construction

331

£1.26 billion

2

Drivers/transport

193

£750 million

3

Administrators

190

£840 million

4

Manufacturers

176

£615 million

5

Retail/shop assistants

146

£500 million

Regardless of the number of people employed in each profession, many other job roles have enjoyed good fortune and a chance to take early retirement, including:

- Managers – 1,066 major prize winners and 110 millionaires

- Care/social workers – over 1,049 big winners and 102 millionaires

- Medical workers including nurses – 100 millionaires with more than £500m won in big prizes.